Kyiv: Soon after Moscow claimed ‘liberation’ of the flattened city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine, US President Joe Biden announced the much anticipated $800 billion military aid on Thursday. The extra US artillery being aided for the second time includes howitzers and tactical drones.
Meanwhile, Ukraine President Zelensky in his virtual address to the World Bank Forum and International Monetary Fund, asserted the devastated nation needed around $7 billion per month to function after the ‘economic loss’. He further urged the global community to exclude Russia immediately from International financial institutions. According to the World Bank, physical damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure has roughly reached $60 billion and will further escalate as the war continues.
Locals reported more than 1,000 civilian dead bodies were stored in morgues in Kyiv after the Russian troops withdrew. Efforts to evacuate being held in Mariupol on Thursday were hampered as shelling began at the collecting point forcing the authorities to call off evacuation in view of safety. According to the UN, 5,264 civilian casualties in Ukraine from the start of Russia’s invasion on February 24, until midnight April 20 local time is confirmed.